Sound reception

Sound reception, response of an organism’s aural mechanism, the ear, to a specific form of energy change, or sound waves. Sound waves can be transmitted through gases, liquids, or solids, but the hearing function of each species is particularly (though not exclusively) sensitive to stimuli from one medium.

If an animal possessing an auditory mechanism comes in suitable contact with a medium vibrating at a frequency and intensity within its range of aural (hearing) sensitivity, it may hear the sound. For land animals, the usual vibrating medium is the air; for fishes and other aquatic creatures, it commonly is the water. Yet, under suitable conditions, all hearing animals can perceive sound waves transmitted by media other than the one in which they live; thus, humans can hear noise while underwater. (Additional information is contained in the article sound.)

In the course of evolution, animals have developed a variety of sense organs that respond to mechanical stimuli. There are at least 10 of these mechanoreceptors in vertebrates and perhaps as many in advanced invertebrates. Not all of these structures respond to sound, however, for among them are the simple touch endings of the skin and the motion receptors that serve (mediate) bodily equilibrium. Although the different ways of registering mechanical changes in the environment or within the body represent various structural specializations, it is not feasible to identify any one of them simply in terms of its structure; many different mechanisms, cells, or organs may perform similar functions. Ears, for example, take many forms in the lower animals and often have little resemblance to these organs in humans and other higher vertebrates. Yet the service that they perform in sound reception is similar enough that they may be called ears.

Although there is no fossil record of the origin and development of auditory structures, in animals with ears the evolutionary process in every instance appears to have been a conversion to an auditory function of structures that previously mediated a simpler form of mechanoreception. Indeed, any mechanoreceptor, even though best adapted to respond to some other form of mechanical stimulation, will respond to vibrations within some region of the sound frequency range if the vibrations have a sufficiently high level of intensity.

Many attempts have been made to define hearing, often with indifferent success. The task is difficult, and in certain respects the lines of distinction are arbitrary. The ear cannot be identified by any standard structure, nor can it be identified in terms of the stimulus as simply a receiver of sound vibrations. As noted above, mechanical receptor organs will respond to sound vibrations within some region of the frequency range if a sufficiently high level of intensity is provided. Moreover, the ear cannot be characterized in terms of the physical principles by which it operates because these principles vary among the ears of different animal species.

A definition of hearing, therefore, must be sought in terms of the ear’s specialization of function and the relative effectiveness with which it performs this function. Thus, hearing may be characterized as the reception of sound vibrations by an organ, the ear, that has developed for this particular purpose and that has reception of sound as its primary function. This definition excludes the reception of sound vibrations by touch (tactual) endings in the skin, for example, because these structures respond most readily to direct pressure. Before such receptors will respond to sound waves, the vibrational intensity of the sound must be relatively great. Also excluded are the hair sensilla, of which arthropods have many types, whenever it can be shown that these organs respond with greater sensitivity to another stimulus (most often a simple direct deflection of the central hair).

Theoretically, several aspects of vibration might serve in its detection by an ear. These characteristics include the amplitude (extent) of the motion of particles (e.g., molecules) in a medium, the velocity and acceleration of the motion, the pressure exerted upon an obstacle in the path of the sound waves, and temperature changes occasioned by the vibrations. All of these manifestations have been utilized in attempts to design microphones for the detection and measurement of sound, but only two (pressure and velocity effects) have proved to be of any practical value. Thus, those devices that employ these two effects are known as pressure and velocity microphones.

It seems more than coincidence that these same two aspects of sound, pressure and velocity, are the only stimulus characteristics on which the evolution of ears appears to have been based. Moreover, just as the pressure microphone is the most practical type designed by man, among ears the pressure type is the most widespread and the most highly developed. Ears that distinguish changes in velocity have appeared only in a few lower animals—as an elaborated hair organ in some insects and perhaps spiders and in two special forms among fishes. All other ears are pressure receptors that have taken two lines of evolutionary development, one in most of the insects and another in vertebrates above fishes.

Considering the usefulness of the sense of hearing to such highly organized animals as human beings, it may seem surprising that this sense is so limited in its appearance and development among animals. It is found only in two major groups of animals: arthropods (e.g., insects and crabs) and vertebrates (e.g., amphibians, birds, and mammals). The condition that probably limited the development of hearing in other species was the lack of sufficient advancement and flexibility of the nervous system.

In those animals with auditory structures, hearing serves purposes of great biological value: in its more primitive forms, it is used to sense danger and enemies, to detect prey, and to identify prospective mates; at a more complex level, hearing is involved in communication within social groups and in emotional expressions of various kinds. The cry of an infant mouse that has strayed from the nest elicits a response by the mother to retrieve it. The singing of a male thrush asserts a claim to its territory, attracts a female to the area, and warns off other males. Among higher mammals (e.g., monkeys and apes) vocalizations show even greater variety and express a range of meanings that may be interpreted in human terms as expressions of such concepts as danger, aggression, love, and the availability of food. In humans the elaborations of auditory communication can be even more symbolically complex, extending to speech and music. The significant features in complicated sounds that people perceive and differentiate correspond to the physical dimensions of frequency (the number of waves, cycles, or vibrations per second), intensity, phase, complexity of wave form, and temporal pattern. The variety of distinguishable acoustic forms is enormous.

Among the most highly refined applications of the auditory sense are those found in such animals as bats and dolphins. These creatures are able to discern objects around them by a process called echolocation; the animal sends out a cry and, by the nature of the echo, is informed of the presence of obstacles or potential prey. For these animals, the sense of hearing provides a service in the dark that closely approaches the reliability of vision in the perception of objects and spatial relations.

Organs of sound reception in invertebrates

It has long been believed that at least some insects can hear. Chief attention has been given to those that make distinctive sounds (e.g., katydids, crickets, and cicadas) because it was naturally assumed that these insects produce signals for communication purposes. Organs suitable for hearing have been found in insects at various locations on the thorax and abdomen and, in one group (mosquitoes), on the head.

Among the many orders of insects, hearing is known to exist in only a few: Orthoptera (crickets, grasshoppers, katydids), Homoptera (cicadas), Heteroptera (bugs), Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), and Diptera (flies). In the Orthoptera, ears are present, and the ability to perceive sounds has been well established. The ears of katydids and crickets are found on the first walking legs; those of grasshoppers are on the first segment of the abdomen. Cicadas are noted for the intensity of sound produced by some species and for the elaborate development of the ears, which are located on the first segment of the abdomen. The waterboatman, a heteropteran, is a small aquatic insect with an ear on the first segment of the thorax. Moths have simple ears that are located in certain species on the posterior part of the thorax and in others on the first segment of the abdomen. Among the Diptera, only mosquitoes are known to possess ears; they are located on the head as a part of the antennae.

All the insects just mentioned have a pair of organs for which there is good evidence of auditory function. Other structures of simpler form that often have been considered to be sound receptors occur widely within these insect groups as well as in others. There is strong evidence that some kind of hearing exists in two other insect orders: the Coleoptera (beetles) and the Hymenoptera (ants, bees, and wasps). In these orders, however, receptive organs have not yet been positively identified.

Types of insect auditory structures

Four structures found in insects have been considered as possibly serving an auditory function: hair sensilla, antennae, cercal organs, and tympanal organs.

Many specialized structures on the bodies of insects seem to have a sensory function. Among these are hair sensilla, each of which consists of a hair with a base portion containing a nerve supply. Because the hairs have been seen to vibrate in response to tones of certain frequencies, it has been suggested that they are sound receptors. It seems more likely, however, that the sensilla primarily mediate the sense of touch and that their response to sound waves is only incidental to that function.

Many sensory functions have been attributed to the antennae of insects, and it is believed that they serve both as tactual and as smell receptors. In some species, the development of elaborate antennal plumes and brushlike terminations has led to the suggestion that they also serve for hearing. This suggestion is supported by positive evidence only in the case of the mosquito, especially the male, in which the base of the antenna is an expanded sac containing a large number of sensory units known as scolophores. These structures, found in many places in the bodies of insects, commonly occur across joints or body segments, where they probably serve as mechanoreceptors for movement. When the scolophores are associated with any structure that is set in motion by sound, however, the arrangement is that of a sound receptor.

In the basic structure of the scolophore, four cells (base cell, ganglion cell, sheath cell, and terminal cell), together with an extracellular body called a cap, constitute a chain. Extending outward from the ganglion cell is the cilium, a hairlike projection that, because of its position, acts as a trigger in response to any relative motion between the two ends of the chain. The sheath cell with its scolopale provides support and protection for the delicate cilium. Two types of enclosing cells (fibrous cells and cells of Schwann) surround the ganglion and sheath cells. The ganglion cell has both a sensory and a neural function; it sends forth its own fibre (axon) that connects to the central nervous system.

In the mosquito ear the scolophores are connected to the antenna and are stimulated by vibrations of the antennal shaft. Because the shaft vibrates in response to the oscillating air particles, this ear is of the velocity type. It is supposed that stimulation is greatest when the antenna is pointed toward the sound source, thereby enabling the insect to determine the direction of sounds. The male mosquito, sensitive only to the vibration frequencies of the hum made by the wings of the female in his own species, flies in the direction of the sound and finds the female for mating. For the male yellow fever mosquito, the most effective (i.e., apparently best heard) frequency has been found to be 384 hertz, or cycles per second, which is in the middle of the frequency range of the hum of females of this species. The antennae of insects other than the mosquito and its relatives probably do not serve a true auditory function.

Cercal organs

The cercal organ, which is found at the posterior end of the abdomen in such insects as cockroaches and crickets, consists of a thick brush of several hundred fine hairs. When an electrode is placed on the nerve trunk of the organ, which has a rich nerve supply, a discharge of impulses can be detected when the brush is exposed to sound. Sensitivity extends over a fairly wide range of vibration frequencies, from below 100 to perhaps as high as 3,000 hertz. As observed in the cockroach, the responses to sound waves up to 400 hertz have the same frequency as that of the stimulus. Although the cercal organ is reported to be extremely sensitive, precise measurements remain to be carried out. It is possible, nevertheless, that this structure, which is another example of a velocity type of sound receptor, is primarily auditory in function.

The tympanal organ of insects consists of a group of scolophores associated with a thin, horny (chitinous) membrane at the surface of the body, one on each side. Usually the scolophores are attached at one end by a spinous process to the tympanic membrane (eardrum); the other ends rest on an immobile part of the body structure. When the membrane moves back and forth in response to the alternating pressures of sound waves, the nerve fibre from the ganglion cell of the scolophore transmits impulses to the central nervous system. Because the tympanic membrane is activated by the pressure of sound waves, this is a pressure type of ear.

Simple tympanal organs, such as those found in moths, contain only two or four elements, or scolophores. In cicadas, on the other hand, these organs are highly developed; they include a sensory body (a number of scolophores in a capsule) that may contain as many as 1,500 elements.

With 80 to 100 scolophores, the grasshopper ear, which has been studied more thoroughly than any other insect ear, is structurally between that of moths and cicadas. Ordinarily, the tympanic membrane is hidden beneath the base of the insect’s wing cover. A bundle of auditory nerve fibres runs from one side of the sensory body, which lies on the inner surface of the membrane, and joins other nerve fibres of the region to form a large nerve extending to a ganglion (nerve centre) in the thorax.

Evidence of hearing and communication in insects

Behavioral observations

That the insect ear serves an auditory purpose has been proved by a large number of experimental observations, particularly those that have dealt most extensively with katydids and crickets. Males of these groups produce sounds by stridulation, which usually involves rubbing the covers of the wings together in a particular way. One wing has a serrated surface (a “file”) that runs along an enlarged vein; the other wing has a sharp edge over which the file is scraped. The scraping causes the wing surfaces to vibrate; the natural resonances of the vibrations and the particular rhythm and repetition rate of the scraping movements determine the nature of the song, which varies with each species. Most females are silent, but those of a few species have a poorly developed stridulatory apparatus, and weak sounds have been reported. Both males and females have tympanal organs for sound reception.

The observation that the males of many insect species produce repeated stridulatory sounds during the mating season led to the inference that the primary purpose of these noises was to attract a female. That this is indeed the case was first established by the extensive observations of the Yugoslavian entomologist Ivan Regen, who worked over the period 1902–30 mostly with a few species of katydids and crickets. In one of his earliest experiments, Regen proved (1913–14) that a male katydid of the species Thamnotrizon apterus responds to the sound of another male by chirping. The first male responds in turn to the second male’s chirp, and the two insects then set up an alternating pattern of chirping. Although this pattern had been observed earlier, Regen was the first to prove by a series of experiments that it depends upon the sense of hearing. After removing the forelegs, on which the tympanal organs are located, of certain males, he found that even though these insects continued to stridulate, they did so only in individual rhythms that were not affected by the sounds of other males. Any alternation of chirping between deafened males, or between a deafened and a normal male, occurred only rarely, for brief times, and by chance.

A long series of check experiments by Regen showed that other stimuli, such as light, odours, and surface vibrations, did not affect the chirping behaviour. In these experiments the insects were placed in separate rooms, and their sounds were transmitted by telephone.

Further experiments carried out by Regen on field crickets (Liogryllus campestris) demonstrated the reactions of females to chirping males. In the most elaborate of these experiments, 1,600 sexually receptive females were released around the periphery of a large enclosed area in the middle of which had been placed a cage containing one or more chirping males. Precise data concerning the frequency with which the females moved toward the cage were obtained by surrounding the cage site with an array of traps in which the females were caught as they moved inward. The results were statistically significant. Normal females (those with intact tympanal organs) moved toward the cage and eventually reached it. The removal of one foreleg and its tympanal organ, however, caused difficulty; the movements were more random and the approaches fewer, although some females did succeed in reaching the cage. When both tympanal organs were removed or if the male failed to chirp, the performance of the females was reduced to chance. They also failed to exhibit the seeking performances if the male’s stridulatory organ was modified, as by removing the file, so that little or no sound was produced.

In 1926 Regen returned to his study of the alternating chirping pattern of katydids and succeeded in having males react to an artificial sound, one that Regen himself produced. He also found that the alternation could be demonstrated with a suitably active male by using a variety of sounds—whistles, percussion noises, and sounds made with his mouth. It was never altogether clear, however, what changes Regen had made in his signals that finally brought success; probably the secret lay in the particular rhythm and timing of the signals. At any rate, this method made possible a study of the general nature of the auditory sensitivity of these insects and the range of sound frequencies to which they responded. It was shown that katydids are most sensitive to the very high frequencies, those that are beyond the limit of the human ear. The instruments available to Regen at the time, however, did not permit a precise measurement of intensity thresholds. (A threshold is the lowest point at which a particular stimulus will cause a response in an organism.)

Although the work of Regen and others established the basic character of sound reception in insects and its role in communication and mating, other details had to await the introduction of electrophysiological methods in this field as well as the development of electronic methods for the precise production, control, and measurement of sound stimuli.

When making electrophysiological observations of an auditory mechanism, an electrode (one terminal, generally a fine wire, in an electric circuit) is placed on a nerve or some other sensory structure in the mechanism. Sounds, presented at different frequencies and intensities, produce neural or sensory changes, which are actually electrical discharges or changes in electrical potential of extremely small magnitude. The impulses are picked up by the electrode and transmitted to an instrument with which they can be amplified, observed, and recorded. In both behavioral and electrophysiological observations, the auditory sensitivity of an animal to sounds of different frequencies can be illustrated by a curve.

The electrophysiological method was first used in research on the insect ear in 1933, with observations mainly on two katydid and one cricket species. The tympanal organ of these insects is located on one of the segments of the foreleg; its nerve goes to a ganglion in the thorax. When an electrode is placed on this nerve, its threshold sensitivity and overall frequency range can be determined by varying the intensity and frequency of the sounds applied to the tympanic membrane. It has been found that the tympanal organ of these insects responds poorly to low tones (those of low frequency) but improves rapidly as the frequency increases to a maximum sensitivity around 3,000 to 5,000 hertz. For higher frequencies the sensitivity declines, until a limit is reached at 30,000 hertz. It is likely that the insect’s identification of its own species by means of song is primarily in terms of intensity and time patterns, with the rapid changes of intensity playing a prominent part. The possibility of frequency also entering into the pattern, however, cannot be ruled out.

A further question concerns the perception of the direction of a sound source. Clearly, if a female is to seek out and find a chirping male, the effectiveness of her performance depends upon an ability to localize the sound. Experiments indicate that the magnitude of electric responses from the tympanal nerve in katydids varies in a systematic manner when a given sound is presented at different angles while the distance is held constant. The insects continue to exhibit this directional pattern even after one of the tympanal organs has been removed. As was mentioned earlier, Regen found that female crickets deprived of one tympanal organ were still able to locate a chirping male, though less effectively than when both organs were intact.

Whether spiders have a sense of hearing has long been debated. Early anecdotal observations concerning this matter have now been reinforced with both behavioral and electrophysiological evidence showing without doubt that spiders are sensitive to mechanical vibrations and also to aerial sounds. Whether this sensitivity should be regarded as hearing is considered later in this section, after a review of the anatomical and behavioral evidence.

Anatomical evidence

The bodies of spiders contain many slitlike openings, called lyriform organs, that have been considered as sensory in nature. Most of these organs probably have a kinesthetic function and thus provide information on local movements of body parts. There is one type of lyriform organ, however, that differs from the others in its location and in certain structural details. It is found on the metatarsal (next to last) segment of each of the eight legs, close to the joint that this segment makes with the tarsus (the last segment, or foot), and consists of a number of slits—about 10 in the common house spider—that partially encircle the leg. Each slit contains a fluid chamber the inner wall of which is pierced by a tubule through which a thin filament runs to one of the two side walls (lamellae) that enclose the slit. This filament is evidently the termination of a ganglion cell that lies deeper in the leg. It has been suggested that an alternating compression of the lamellae stimulates the terminal filament.

The responsiveness of the common house spider to aerial sounds and mechanical vibrations includes a wide range, from below 20 to as high as 45,000 hertz. Within this range the sensitivity, as measured by electrical potentials, varies widely for aerial sounds; in some experiments narrow regions of frequency have been found in which no responses could be obtained at the highest intensities available. These variations of sensitivity are ascribed to mechanical resonances in the lyriform structure.

The tarsus evidently plays an important part in responses to sounds. Removal of portions of the tarsus reduces the responses about in proportion to the amount removed; immobilization of the tarsus greatly impairs the sensitivity. It appears, therefore, that the tarsus serves as a sensing element that transmits vibrations to the lyriform organ, which thus is a velocity type of ear.

It has been reported that spiders react in characteristic ways to a buzzing insect caught in their web. The spider apparently locates the insect at once, runs to it, and attacks it. An inactive object, however, such as a small pebble enmeshed in the web, produces a different response: the spider manipulates the strands of the web, locates the object, and cuts away the filaments surrounding it so that the object drops to the ground. The reactions of a house spider to a mechanical vibrator applied to a point on the web have been observed. Such a stimulus elicits a response similar to that of an active insect if the vibratory frequency is between 400 and 700 hertz. For frequencies above 1,000 hertz, however, the spider reacts either by running to a secluded corner of the web or, if the intensity is too great, by abandoning the web altogether. From this and similar evidence it has been concluded that the spider has the ability of pitch (tone) discrimination between low and high ranges and perhaps can distinguish between tones of the lower range.

Spiders also react to aerial tones from an artificial source, such as a loudspeaker. These stimuli elicit an orientation response, in which the spider faces the source and reaches out with the two front legs. Thus, in view of the high level of sensitivity to both aerial and mechanical stimuli, the reception of sounds in the spider can probably be regarded as true hearing, and the lyriform organ as a form of ear. It is evidently a velocity type of ear, for there is no tympanic surface to respond to sound pressures, and the small leg segments seem to respond to the oscillatory motions of the air particles.

Inspire your inbox –
Sign up for daily fun facts about this day in history, updates, and special offers.

By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Click here to view our Privacy Notice. Easy unsubscribe links are provided in every email.

Thank you for subscribing!

Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox.